Abstract

Background: Short interpregnancy interval (SIPI) is common despite of all efforts to implement family planning. The prevalence of interpregnancy interval is reported with huge variation using inconsistent definition of SIPI.

Aim: To find pooled prevalence of short interpregnancy interval.

Methodology: The literature was searched using various search engines (google, google scholar) and databases (PubMed, Scopus) and network searching was also done using research through available digital libraries. Only peer reviewed articles, freely available and having clear methodology were included in this study. A total of 540 published studies were found initially after careful screening only 15 studies were included in final analysis..

Results: A total of 15 studies were finally taken in this meta-analysis with total sample size was (n=12840062). The pooled prevalence of SIPI (defined at different intervals) was found as 7.85% (95% CI, 7.81% – 7.91%) using fixed effects and 24.10% (95% CI, 12.70% – 37.80%) using random effect. There was high heterogeneity among the reported prevalence i.e. I2 = 100% (> 75%) and Q test was highly significant as well (p-value < 0.001). Moreover, the publication bias [Egger's test (73.5007) and Begg’s test (0.1429)] was statistically insignificant (p-value > 0.05).

Conclusion: The pooled prevalence of short interpregnancy interval was found high using random effect method. The studies had higher heterogeneity among published prevalence of SIPI mainly due to inconsistent definitions. So, the real picture can be clearer if studies focus on standard definition of SIPI proposed by world health organization.

Keywords: Birth spacing, short inter pregnancy interval, family planning